The Recycle Bin

Part 1 of (2 or 3). A couple of quick housekeeping items. First, in order to get in more subs, I changed my controller settings to 45 for sub out, and 85 for sub in, but this seems to have little effect. I changed the game to All American, 6-minute quarters. I have decided to follow any recommended discipline recommendations, but I am going to track each player; three strikes and they are out. I am not going to put up with crap at my schools.

This was one of the best NCAA Football games I have played in recent memory, and absolutely the best I have played with the 2007 version. I hope the new settings are going to be golden.

This game earned the #1 ESPN Classic rating (622 pts). North Texas was two by two touchdowns at the start of the 4th quarter, but battled back, finally pulling even with 14 seconds left. SMU won the toss in OT, and elected to go on defense. North Texas drove on two rushing TDs to take their first led of the game since their opening drive of the 1st quarter. SMU’s offense was stopped on four consecutive plays, earning North Texas a hard fought victory.

• (#101) SMU (0-1) 35 � (#52) North Texas (1-0) 42 OT

               1st   2nd   3rd   4th   OT   |  Final
SMU            14    14    7     0     0    |  35
North Texas    14    7     0     14    7    |  42

I did not plan to go into tons of detail with my three dynasties this year, but this game was so fun, so even, that I have to post the goodness for all to read.

                SMU          North Texas
Score           35           42
1st Downs       20           23
Total Offense   462          499
Rushes-Yards    35-144       25-206
Comp Att TD     16-28-3      15-25-0
Passing Yards   318          293
Sacked          4            0
3rd Down Conv   9-14 (64%)   2-6 (33%)
4th Down Conv   1-2 (50%)    2-2 (100%)
2 point Conv    0-0 (0%)     0-0 (0%)
Red Zone Conv   2-2-0 (100%) 6-5 (83%)
Turnovers       0            2
Fumbles-Lost    1-0          1-0
Int             0            2
PR Yards        10           6
KR Yards        151          123
Total Yards     623          628
Punts-Avg       3-43.0       2-36.5
Penalties-Yds   0-0          0-0
T.O.P.          13:47        10:13

There are a lot of discussion points here, but I am only going to mention two. First, my goal is to always win the T.O.P. battle; SMU played me incredible tough in this regard, as their impact HB ran all over me. Second, I averaged 2 yds/punt return, which absolutely sucks. I have not figured out what I can do to make this better.

Key Contributors:

North Texas
QB #7  15-25 293 yds, 2 INT, long pass of 39 yds
HB #20 21-173 6 TDs
WR #81 7 recs 190 yds

SMU
QB #16 16-28 318 yds, 3 TDs, 0 INT, long pass of 72 yds
HB #8  24-112 yds, 2 TDs
* 2 WRs had 100 yards receiving

This was the most fun I have had with a video game in a long time. I was constantly battling against momentum, which is too easily given to visiting teams, but I finally managed to stop SMU on consecutive possessions, which gave me an opportunity to pull even. The two defensive stops where key to the win, because SMU did not turn over the ball the entire game.

I doubt I will go into this level of detail for future chronicles (don’t hold your breath, but you never know), but this one was just too good not to share.

A recent article at NFL.com says what so many of us Falcons faithful already know: the offense in the hands of Vick is either extremely exciting, or head to hell via a multi-million dollar hand basket. The reality is that Vick gets a bum rap because he is such an untraditional QB. I think if you put up Vick’s total statistics (passing and rushing) his numbers stack up well to the top half of NFL QBs, but it is only Vick’s rare game or two that puts him into elite company. Exciting? Yes. John Elway was also exciting and athletic, but Elway was a QB, not just a rare athlete.

Will Vick’s time come? It is pretty much now or never. I love that Vick is exciting, but I also know that his decision making is questionable, which means that he has to make up for lack of polish with that intangible known as athleticism. The NFL.com article says:

“After watching the team practice and sitting down to watch the practice tapes, there is one scenario that makes Atlanta tough to beat. If it can get an early lead on an opponent and take the pressure off Vick, the offensive questions will not get exposed. And with that lead, the defense can use its formidable pass rush against teams trying to catch up. If this team has to spend a large part of the season trying to play catch-up, it might struggle.”

Saying the Falcons will struggle if they have to play catch-up may be the understatement of the year.

I have high hopes for this year (homer and all that), but if the defense does not figure out how to stuff the run, then fans will not have much reason to worry about Vick. Predictions to come after another preseason game or two are in hand.

Chris and I are still on the hunt for another contributor to the ‘Bin. Please drop me a line (jonathan@calvertgames.com) if you are interested in joining our staff. No special requirements – you just need to enjoy writing about games (PC, consoles, handheld, retro/classic) and sports.

I guess college football is in the air because I am actually playing (not to mention writing) about a college football game, and instead of doing my usual surfing to a few specific sites looking for college football news, I have actually been spending time looking for decent sites that are off the beaten path (well, unknown to me at any rate). Enter Burnt Orange Nation, which is part of SportsBlogs Nation, which I am across last week when I discovered Dawg Sports (see Duck and Beavers posts several items down).

It has been a while since I was really juiced up about a game, and while NCAA Football 2007 is not some sort of new sliced bread, it does have me gaming, and maybe more importantly, writing again. Texas should have an interesting year, and much like last year, everything comes down to QB play. Of course last year the Horns had a certain super talented QB named Vince Young. This year hopes and dreams will come down to an unknown. I fear that the Ohio St and OU games are going to be too much for an inexperienced. Ollie would not be happy, but I am going to call for a 10-2 season, while keeping my fingers crossed for something better.

Hook ’em!

I finally decided to start a NCAA Football 2007 dynasty, but I am going to do things different this year. I doubt I will do any sort of major chronicle of my exploits. Not that the chronicle reports are no longer fun, but I am always pressed for time, so better to spend it playing and writing about an assortment of stuff, instead of spending detailing the statistics. Besides I am tackling three teams this year � Georgia, North Texas, and Texas.

I still have to work out all the odds and ends, but after playing several random games (mostly of the rivalry sort), I think week one of my schedule shed some light on a need to switch things up. This well be addressed in short order.

I only have a few “house” rules. I have been playing on varsity, 5-minute quarters, and some adjustments for the CPU to drop passing completion percentage. I have not determined what I am going to do about recruiting, but I have kicked around the idea of only letting UGA and Texas recruit 3-star players, which should up the ante, and balance things out due to reported escalating rating statistics as the game progresses. On defense I try to play out of the base formation as much as possible, and one office I rotate through each formation (i.e. play one is called from formation one, play two is called from formation two). I am allowed to make exceptions on fourth down; assuming I am trailing or it actually makes sense to try something other than a punt. I think this will expose more of the playbooks then I might normally uncover. This strategy also may put me in a strange position where I may have to run a shotgun formation on 2nd and goal, at the two yard line, while trailing by six, instead of being able to resort to a power formation. I will tweak as necessary.

• (1AA) Western Kentucky 0 � (#16) Georgia 49
• (#110) North Texas 21 � (#2) Texas 14

There is not much to say about the Georgia game; the damage should have been much worse, but I made a couple of blunders in the red zone. Thomas Brown (HB #20) went well over the 100 yard mark in his bid for this year’s Heisman trophy. All in all I was happy to gain my first shutout with this year’s game. Next up are the cocks from USC.

I debated what to do with the North Texas/Texas game, finally opting to go with the Mean Green because I figured it would offer up a nice challenge. This one was never in doubt; I went up 7-0 before Texas equaled the score and then I went up 21-7 to start the 4th quarter. I should have put this one away, but I just missed a 38-yard field goal, and I had an attempt inside the 5-yardline blocked after I had a brain fart and forgot what to do with the damn right analog stick.

I did wonders with my impact WR, #81 (Johnny Quinn), racking up several receptions for 250+ yards and 2 TDs. Impact HB, #20 (Jamario Thomas) put up 100 yards on the ground, but that is typical for me with a good HB. Last year I would have struggled against a team like Texas, but this year it was never in doubt except for worrying about the momentum feature.

North Texas gets SMU, while Texas looks to avoid going 0-2, while hosting Ohio State. I should have a major worry spot with Ohio State; realistically I do not, so I think I am going to have to bump the game to All American before proceeding with week two.

I really enjoy The Sporting News, but I never understand why they are so afraid to give some honest-to-goodness ratings. Take the August 11, 2006 issue as an example of ratings that just do not matter, or maybe just do not make sense. On page 50 of the Inside the AFC quarterbacks unit analysis, the Jets received the lowest rating of C-. The Jets did co-share honors with the Bill and Browns, but that is not really the point. The description of the Jet’s QB situation follows:

When you have four QBs competing for the starting job, you don’t have a quarterback.

Fair enough, but why not rate the Jets as F or D? Seriously, if the author thinks it is that bad, why not have the ratings reflect accordingly? The Sporting News always pulls the punches when it comes to rating. I just do not get it.

I love me some stuffs, and this comes without drinking, which some of you may find as a big surprise. Of course Miller Time does not come until after lunch, and without the NFL Network on Charter, I am not sure if there is a reason for beer this afternoon. No preseason games for me today. Boo-hiss.

I noticed that Madden 07 for the Nintendo DS is going to be priced at $29.99, which is $10 cheaper than the PSP version. Not sure what the deal is there – must be the UMD nonsense. Joshua will be 8-years-old Aug 22, and he is asking for the game for his DS, so this year I may pass on the PSP version for a while I (er, rather Joshua) checks out the game on the DS. You can also pay big bucks ($69.99 for the 360; $59.99 for the PS2) for the “Hall of Fame” version of Madden. Unlike the “collectors” edition a couple of years ago, the “Hall of Fame” version does not include anything other than a bonus DVD of various not so special stuffs.

I am not sure what is new in the PS2 version this year other than the ability to control the lead blocker before returning control back to the HB. I doubt I have the dexterity to pull that one off. I wonder if the lamplighter, spotlight thing is still included this year? I did not keep Madden 06 around long enough to really give the thing a go because I thought Madden 05 was still entirely playable.

Arkansas fans will complain loudly that they would have beaten USC this year if McFadden did not have a bum toe. Sure. We all have fantasies.

Auburn’s football program has been exonerated of guilt by the school’s president. It seems that “regular” students participated in “grade boosting” so no NCAA infractions were committed. Something fun like that. We all have our faults, and we all know that SEC schools would never cheat. Seriously.

It seems that Beckham has been run off from the England squad. Young girls everyone swoon in dismay. International soccer will never be the same.

D.J. Shockley led the Falcons on the game winning drive last night (see below). Good for me; Shockley seems to be one of the good guys, so I hope he does well in ATL.

More fluff and stuff after Miller Time. Until then, please do the same.

It looks like Atlanta has a new secret weapon

Michael Koenen, who handled the punting and kickoff duties as a rookie last season, appears ready to take on another job after booting four long field goals Friday night, including a 40-yarder as time ran out for a 26-23 preseason victory over the New England Patriots.

Good news there, but once again the Falcon’s first team defense looks rather porous against the run. I know it is preseason, but it looked like Moses was parting the Red Sea for Dillon and Maroney to run rampant. If Atlanta does not solve this problem in a hurry, they will be sitting at home come playoff time.

Well, there may be a reason to get an Xbox 360 afterall. Take a look at this Chromehounds footage. Looks rather tasty.

We are advertising a new opening – Long Beach Breakers. Had a few bites, but nothing solid yet. If interested, contact me as soon as possible.

I love reading in various emails and forums about how Out of the Park Baseball 2006 is unplayable as an online league game. Even the most liberal commissioners are staying away from the game because there is this feeling permeating the online community that OOTPB 2006 is “just awful” (I paraphrase about ten emails).

Fine.

Sadly the notion that OOTPB 2006 can’t be played online is a myth generated by initial reports about the game when it could not, in fact, be played online. This has all changed since the last official patch. The main group now feeling the online pinch are Mac users who are experiencing FTP issues with file uploads.

My league continues down the path toward full OOTPB 2006 implementation. The biggest headache so far has been OOTP 6.5 and contraction. We started converting our league logos to OOTPB 2006 png circular format. The only hold up is the contraction draft, which should end by this weekend.

More to follow…

Lately I have really been enjoying Dawg Sports. The site’s layout and navigation model is poorly put together (as if I have room to talk), but I enjoy the articles. For example, take this beauty

Coach Riley is right . . . it would be a big deal for the Bulldogs to visit Reser Stadium, for the Red and Black very nearly as much so as for the home team. A Seattle newspaper columnist recently wrote of Georgia that the ‘Dawgs are “notorious for refusing to travel outside the Southeast.” Historically, of course, this is not true, but that marks two occasions on which folks from the Pacific Northwest have characterized Georgia as “notorious.”

For a team allegedly prejudiced against the West, Georgia sure seems willing to schedule games against squads from that region. Counting contests already played or scheduled and those for which negotiations are ongoing, the Bulldogs have faced or will face opponents from the Pacific and mountain time zones in 2005 (Boise State), 2006 (Colorado), 2007 (Oregon State), 2008 (Arizona State), 2009 (Arizona State), 2010 (Colorado), 2011 (Oregon State), 2014 (Oregon), and 2017 (Oregon State), in addition to a future date with the Ducks in either 2015 or 2016.

If the contracts with both Beaver State schools come to pass, the ‘Dawgs will play five different Western teams a total of 10 times in a 13-season span, with four of those games being played on the road in Boulder, Corvallis, Eugene, and Tempe. Such scheduling should silence the critics who charge the Bulldogs with insular provincialism and an East Coast bias.

Good stuff!

I have long lamented for the Dawgs to upgrade their opposition, but I was looking more towards Ohio State, Texas, and the like, NOT Devils, Ducks, and Beavers (not that beavers are bad, but I digress and of course could not resist). I guess anything is better than Western KY.

I just stumbled across an amusing take on one of the new NCAA football rules to be instituted this year. Sunday Morning Quarterback points out

SMQ should be clear that the pageantry and emotion of college football is wonderful (and so, too, especially, is beer), and is its primary attraction over the blatantly corporate NFL. This is 3-2-5-e’s greatest flaw: the number of plays will be reduced by about a dozen or so, very likely more, which will put numbers around an NFL-esque 145 or so plays per game. This has little to do with excessive outside marketing and much to do with the actual on-field product; the professional games in SMQ’s view are notoriously bloated by very long play clocks (up to two-thirds of a game can tick, tick, tick away while people gesture wildly at the line of scrimmage) and non-stoppages for first downs, elements that hurt games by cutting the number of snaps to a bare bones, flow-crushing minimum. The length – as in the number of snaps college teams get off in a game – is one of the relative strengths, along with much wider variations in strategy and the aforementioned pageantry, of the “amateur” contests.

I love Coach Richt, but so far he has not figured out how to manage a game clock, so I doubt the rule change will adversely affect UGA any more than poor clock management has in the past.

I am still not sure what to make of this new momentum model. I know in real life, momentum plays a big part, which is one of the great aspects of college football. So far it seems to be over done in this game, and it looks like there is not a way to turn it off. I could live with this if it helped one team make two or three great defensive stands in a row, but my experiences have been turnover related, which is not so good.

What is up with this year’s manual? The PS2 manual is pretty pathetic. Compared to last year, the manual is missing a color cover, it is twice as small (15 pages last year, 7 pages this year), and the thing is unbelievably flimsy. Not that a manual matters all that much; like others I rarely read it anyway. I wonder how much money was actually saved by going with this cheap version?

I actually saw the CPUs WRs block 20+ yards downfield on a long breakaway pass. Not sure that I have seen that in the past. Normally blocking is fairly limited to the line of scrimmage, but much to my surprise, the WRs were actually engaged in blocking. Nice.

What is with all the celebration penalties? This is way over done. In real life I know I always cuss and fuss when my teams get called for celebration penalties, especially when they seem unwarranted, so I can understand where the developers were going with the penalties. With that said, this is still way over done, and speaking of penalties, once again the developers have implemented a system where hardly anything gets called out of the box. I guess it is slider time.

Jenson Button finally took home the top spot on a podium at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix. I have always liked Jenson, so I am happy that he pulled off a victory for Honda, even if it came under wet conditions.

Poor luck for Alonso, and M. Schumacher. Speaking of Schumacher, WTF was he thinking at the end, going toe-to-toe with Pedro de la Rosa? Is Michael so thickheaded that he did not realize that any finish in the points was going to be a big payday for him on Alonso? He could have easily came in 3-6, depending on what the rest of the filed was lapping, but he did not want to play it safe. While I do not know the direct cause of his retirement, I have to believe that it was a result of his aggressive driving.

At any rate, I love F1 in the rain because wet conditions almost always guarantee a jumbled field at the top, which was the case today.

This race also looks like the end for Villeneuve; his sub, Kubica, who finished a respectable seventh in his debut race. I wonder if Villeneuve would consider a tour in NASCAR, much like JPM? I have always like Villeneuve, even if he has been a “has-been” for the last 6+ years.

Congratulations Button!